John Lennon: Murder Without a Trial, review: startling eye-witness accounts heard for the first time

Anita Singh
Sat, 2 December 2023 

John Lennon with his son Sean in 1977 - Vinnie Zuffante/Archive Photos

Everyone over the age of 50 remembers where they were when they heard the news that John Lennon had been shot. For a handful of people, that day remains horribly vivid because they were there. The concierge and porter of the Dakota building, the first police officers on the scene, and the doctor and nurses who tended to a dying Lennon at the Roosevelt Hospital all present their recollections in John Lennon: Murder Without a Trial (Apple TV+).

It is remarkable to listen to these first-hand accounts, so vivid and detailed despite the passage of more than 40 years. There is a danger that documentaries like these can be little more than true-crime titillation, but here there is a sense that those present wanted history to be recorded. The concierge, Jay Hastings, has never spoken publicly before. Asked why he is doing so now, he replies: “Time’s passed. We’re on the record. Once and done.” Also speaking on-camera for the first time are Richard Peterson, a cab driver who witnessed the shooting, and Dr Naomi Goldstein, the psychiatrist who assessed shooter Mark Chapman.

Other contributors to the first episode include two police officers who were first on the scene and the doctor who spent 45 minutes massaging Lennon’s heart before accepting that it was futile. The documentary takes us minute by minute through that night, and the witnesses describe their moment of realisation that this gunshot victim was one of the most famous men in the world. “It hit me,” says one of the cops, as he remembers kneeling down to check for a pulse. “I said, ‘Holy smokes, this is John Lennon’.”

The three-part documentary, narrated by Kiefer Sutherland, weaves in archive footage and news coverage of the case, which helps to illustrate the huge impact of this story back in 1980. Episode two focuses on the police investigation and episode three on the trial, and the focus in both of these is Chapman. The programme weighs up whether he was legally insane, as his defence claimed. His former lawyer and the lead detective on the case argue both sides. And we hear from Chapman himself, in previously unheard recordings made in prison, giving various explanations as to why he did it.

The list of contributors is impressive and the researchers have done a sterling job, although it is never explained if Yoko Ono was asked or declined to appear. There is one count on which the documentary feels on shaky ground; its toying with conspiracy theories. It is legitimate to mention these, and it is a fact that the FBI considered Lennon to be a threat due to his anti-war stance.

The theory that Chapman had been under the influence of MK-Ultra mind control has been around for decades. But the way these things are addressed – and conspiracy is trailed in the opening minutes – adds a slightly sensationalist tone, and the theories are soon cast aside without thought.

Witnesses to John Lennon’s murder speak for first time

Anita Singh
Sat, 2 December 2023 

John Lennon’s last words have been disclosed in a new documentary which also features a recording of Mark Chapman discussing his motive.

The series, John Lennon: Murder Without A Trial, includes interviews with witnesses to the shooting on 8 December 1980 and its aftermath, and looks at the conspiracy theories that sprung up.

The concierge of Manhattan’s Dakota building, where Lennon was shot as he returned home, speaks publicly about that night for the first time and says the former Beatle said, “I’m shot,” before collapsing. In another first, audio recordings of Mark Chapman speaking to his lawyers as he awaited trial are heard.

Asked by his legal team why he shot Lennon, Chapman refers to the Beatles song when he says, ‘All You Need Is Love, have you ever heard that? Well, this is what I say to that: all you need is love and 250 million dollars. He was the biggest, phoniest bastard that ever lived.”

Barbara Kammerer and Deartra Sato, first responder nurses to Lennon - CHP

The first police responders on the scene also speak to the documentary, along with the doctor who treated Lennon at the Roosevelt Hospital and the nurse who broke the news of the star’s death to his wife, Yoko Ono.

The title of the series refers to the fact that Chapman pleaded guilty to second-degree murder on the eve of his trial. He was sentenced to at least 20 years in prison and has repeatedly been denied parole.

The series director, Nick Holt, said: “I felt that a lot of people directly involved in the case were getting on a bit now and if we didn’t capture and gather them into a series, their testimony would be lost forever.”

The producer

Lennon spent his final hours at a recording studio where he had begun work on a new single. Jack Douglas, his producer, tells the documentary: “He was on top of the world. The last I saw of him was getting in the elevator. As the elevator door was closing, he was standing right in front of me with this big smile. He was so happy about how everything was going. It had been a glorious day and he just said to me, ‘I’ll see you in the morning, 8am.’ Happy as a lark.”

The taxi driver

Cab driver Richard Peterson was parked outside the Dakota and witnessed the shooting. “Lennon was walking in and this kid says, ‘John Lennon.’ He was a chunky guy. I’m looking at him through the front window of my cab. I’m looking at him shoot him. This guy just shot John Lennon.

“I thought they were making a movie, but I didn’t see no lights or cameras or anything so I realised, hey, this ain’t no movie.”

The concierge

Jay Hastings, who worked on the front desk at the Dakota building, heard Lennon’s last words. “He runs past me. He goes, ‘I’m shot.’ He had blood coming out of his mouth. He just collapsed on the floor. I half rolled him to his back and took his glasses off, put them on the desk. And Yoko was screaming, ‘Get an ambulance, get an ambulance, get an ambulance.’”

The police officers

NYPD officer Peter Cullen arrested Chapman, who had remained at the scene clutching a copy of The Catcher In The Rye. “We put the cuffs on him and it was strange: there was no resistance at all. He actually apologised to us. He said, ‘Gee, I’m sorry you guys, I ruined your night.’ I says, ‘You gotta be kidding me. You know you just ruined your whole life?’”

Herb Frauenberger, another NYPD officer, tended to Lennon: “Somebody is yelling, ‘There’s a guy shot back here.’ So we go in and the first thing I see is a man laying on the floor. I turned his head just a little bit so I could try to feel for his pulse, and he had a very faint pulse… and then it hit me. I said, ‘Holy smokes, this is John Lennon.’”

The medical staff

Dr David Halleran treated Lennon when he was rushed into the emergency room at Roosevelt Hospital. “I go running down there and they say, ‘We have a gunshot wound.’ We’re working on him, pumping his heart, and it’s like, ‘My God, that is John Lennon.’

“Your hands are on the heart and you’re squeezing it - just keep pumping. The hope is that you get some flicker of life and unfortunately it was just not enough. I think the total time was about 45 minutes before it became futile and we called it and stopped… You feel like you failed.”

Richard Peterson, taxi driver, in John Lennon: Murder Without A Trial - CHP

Barbara Kammerer, a nurse, went to break the news to Ono: “She knelt down and I knelt down next to her. She had her arms around me and I kept reiterating that he wasn’t in pain, he was not scared. Then Yoko said, ‘I have to get home. I have to see my son.’ She did not want him to hear it on the radio or TV.”

As staff walked out of the room where Lennon lay dead, another nurse says, the ‘muzak’ playing over the hospital system was ‘Imagine.’

The family friend

Elliot Mintz visited Yoko the day after the shooting. He recalled: “Yoko was barely there. She stared at the television for a while; although the sound was off it was only showing one thing over and over and over again. We heard the singing [by fans who had gathered on the street below]. Although we were on the top floor we heard it very very clearly. And then she looked at me and said, ‘Why would that man do that?’

“I’ve never expressed this before, [but] one of the things that Yoko asked me was to look into the various theories, the conspiracy theories, after John’s murder. The two of them were convinced that their apartment was being bugged.”

The psychiatrist

Dr Naomi Goldstein was tasked with assessing Chapman’s sanity and ability to stand trial. She said: “He showed so many different facades - he could be nasty, he could be sweet, he was difficult. He tried to avoid giving straight answers.” But she said that “nothing remotely psychotic came out of him, no evidence of hallucinations or delusions,” and concluded that he was fit to stand trial.”

The lawyer

David Suggs, one of Chapman’s lawyers, maintains that he was legally insane. “It was weird because you could talk to him at times and he would seem pretty normal and then, wham, out of his mouth in the next instant would come something that was just so out of left-field you realised, ‘Oh, yeah, he’s crazy.’”

The audio recording

The documentary includes tapes of Chapman explaining his actions to his legal team. In one, he says: “Well, this is kind of a crazy thought but I thought I would turn into somebody if I killed somebody… you know that book [JD Salinger’s] The Catcher In The Rye? I had that book on me and I thought I would turn into the character in the book… Holden Caulfield… It is my sincere belief that I killed John Lennon to get as many people as possible to read The Catcher in the Rye.”

Later he uses Caulfield’s favourite criticism - “phoniness” - when he says: “Here’s what I say about John Lennon. ‘All you need is love’, have you ever heard that? Well, this is what I say to that: all you need is love and 250 million dollars. He was the biggest, phoniest bastard that ever lived. I wasn’t about to let the world endure 10 more years of his menagerie of bull—-.”

The pastor

Charles McGoan, a pastor at Chapman’s church, still visits him in prison. He said: “He’s paid a bigger penalty than a lot of people realise because he’s having to live in isolation in prison. He can’t even go to chapel services because of fear of harm to him from other prisoners. If he’d shot somebody who wasn’t famous, I don’t think he’d be in prison today. He shot the wrong man.”

‘She sacrificed care home residents’: health chief Jenny Harries under fire after UK Covid inquiry revelations

Michael Savage Policy Editor
Sat, 2 December 2023 


The head of the UK Heath Security Agency is facing a growing backlash after it emerged she suggested that discharging Covid-infected hospital patients to care homes would be “clinically appropriate” to protect the NHS from collapse.

Care home providers and the families of those who died after contracting Covid while in residential care said the revelations confirmed their suspicions at the time, adding that it disproved the claim of ministers to have thrown a “protective ring” around the homes.

It comes after the disclosure of an email from Dame Jenny Harries, then England’s deputy chief medical officer, sent in March 2020 as Covid was unfolding. In a message to health officials, she said that discharging care home residents from hospital would have to happen if there was exponential growth of Covid – and acknowledged the move would be criticised by the families involved.

“Whilst the prospect is perhaps what none of us would wish to plan for, I believe the reality will be that we will need to discharge Covid-19 positive patients into residential care settings for the reason you have noted,” she wrote. “This will be entirely clinically appropriate because the NHS will triage those to retain in acute settings who can benefit from that sector’s care. The numbers of people with disease will rise sharply within a fairly short timeframe and I suspect make this fairly normal practice, and more acceptable, but I do recognise that families and care homes will not welcome this in the initial phase.”

Appearing at the inquiry last week, Harries – who has since been promoted to run the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and given a damehood – conceded that the email “sounded awful”. However, she had been taking “a very, very high-level view” of what would need to happen if the NHS was overwhelmed with an “enormous explosion of cases”.

It has now provoked an angry response from families of those who died in care homes and from care providers who complained at the time that they had not been prioritised on a par with the NHS. “In the face of a virus that would go on to kill 230,000 people in this country, Jenny Harries was employed specifically to find a way to protect people and make the best of the situation,” said Deborah Doyle, spokesperson for Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK.

“It’s clear that instead she took the ‘easiest’ and cruellest option of sacrificing care home residents, some of the most vulnerable people in the country. It was families like ours that paid the awful price for her failure and it’s absolutely disgraceful that she has since been promoted, made a dame and is head of the UKHSA.”

Prof Vic Rayner, chief executive of the National Care Forum, said the evidence heard so far “confirms the distressing experiences of our not-for-profit members, their staff, the people they supported and their relatives”. “On 19 March 2020, DHSC issued guidance to discharge people, regardless of testing status, into social care settings without ensuring that the necessary PPE, infection prevention control and clinical support was in place to keep everyone safe. Among the devastating revelations was confirmation that PPE paid for by social care providers was requisitioned by the NHS. The inquiry has laid bare that there was no ring of protection around care homes – instead decisions seemingly taken in abstraction of the reality of social care or available evidence were implemented with unforgettable consequences.”

Ministers are also facing political pressure over the revelations, with opposition parties stating that it now contradicts claims of prioritising care home safety. “The government said they were putting a protective ring around care homes, when in reality they were infecting care homes,” said Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary. Daisy Cooper, the Lib Dem health spokesperson, said it was “simply staggering that the government knowingly spread Covid into care homes by allowing the discharge of patients with the virus”.

The UKHSA did not comment. However, an ally of Harries reiterated that she had been commenting on what would happen “if and only if” hospitals were overflowing with patients and the system had no other option.

• This article was amended on 2 December 2023 to clarify that Jenny Harries was deputy chief medical officer for England, not the whole of the UK.

Conservative Supreme Court justices seem open to an attack on the Securities and Exchange Commission

BY MARK SHERMAN
 November 29, 2023

WASHINGTON (AP) — Conservative Supreme Court justices on Wednesday seemed open to a challenge to how the Securities and Exchange Commission fights fraud, in a case that could have far-reaching effects on other regulatory agencies.

A majority of the nine-member court suggested that people accused of fraud by the SEC should have the right to have their cases decided by a jury in federal court, instead of by the SEC’s in-house administrative law judges.

The justices heard more than two hours of arguments in the Biden administration’s appeal of a lower-court ruling that threw out stiff financial penalties imposed on hedge fund manager George R. Jarkesy by the SEC, which regulates securities markets.

“That seems problematic to say that the government can deprive you of your property, your money, substantial sums in a tribunal that is at least perceived as not being impartial,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh said.

Senate Democrats authorize subpoenas in the Supreme Court ethics probe. GOP won’t back enforcement

Justice Department lawyer Brian Fletcher warned the justices that their decision could have effects reaching far beyond the SEC, noting that roughly two dozen agencies have similar enforcement schemes.

“I don’t want you to think it’s just about the SEC,” Fletcher said.

The case is just one of several this term in which conservative and business interests are urging the court to constrict federal regulators. The court’s six conservatives already have reined them in, including in May’s decision sharply limiting their ability to police water pollution in wetlands.

In the Jarkesy case, the Democratic administration is relying on a 50-year-old decision in which the court ruled that in-house proceedings did not violate the Constitution’s right to a jury trial in civil lawsuits.

But Chief Justice John Roberts, signaling his concerns with the power of federal regulators, noted that “the impact of governmental agencies on daily life today is enormously more significant than it was 50 years ago.”

The court’s three liberal justices seemed sympathetic to the Biden administration’s arguments. Justice Elena Kagan, responding to Roberts, said “our problems have only gotten more complicated and difficult.”

Later, Kagan said in-house enforcement actions have been close to routine for the past half-century. “Nobody has had the, you know, chutzpah, to quote my people,” said Kagan, who is Jewish.

Last year, a divided panel of the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Jarkesy and his Patriot28 investment adviser group on three issues.

It found that the SEC’s case against him, resulting in a $300,000 civil fine and the repayment of $680,000 in allegedly ill-gotten gains, should have been heard in a federal court instead of before one of the SEC’s administrative law judges.

Although the Supreme Court basically dealt only with the federal court issue, the appellate panel also said Congress unconstitutionally granted the SEC “unfettered authority” to decide whether the case should be tried in a court of law or handled within the executive branch agency. And it said laws shielding the commission’s administrative law judges from being fired by the president are unconstitutional.

Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod wrote the appellate opinion, joined by Judge Andrew Oldham. Elrod was appointed by President George W. Bush, and Oldham by President Donald Trump. Bush and Trump are Republicans.

Judge Eugene Davis, a nominee of President Ronald Reagan, also a Republican, dissented.

Jarkesy’s lawyers noted that the SEC wins almost all the cases it brings in front of the administrative law judges but only about 60% of cases tried in federal court.

The SEC was awarded more than $5 billion in civil penalties in the 2023 government spending year that ended Sept. 30, the agency said in a news release. It was unclear how much of that money came through in-house proceedings or lawsuits in federal court.

A decision in SEC v. Jarkesy, 22-859, is expected by early summer.

Protester critically injured after setting self on fire outside Israeli consulate in Atlanta

A protester was in critical condition Friday after setting themself on fire outside the Israeli consulate in Atlanta, authorities said. A security guard who tried to intervene was also injured. (Dec 01) (AP production Javier Arciga)

December 2, 2023

ATLANTA (AP) — A protester was in critical condition Friday after setting themself on fire outside the Israeli consulate in Atlanta, authorities said. A security guard who tried to intervene was also injured.

A Palestinian flag found at the scene was part of the protest, Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum said at a news conference.

He added that investigators did not believe there was any connection to terrorism and none of the consular staff was ever in danger.

“We do not see any threat here,” he said. “We believe it was an act of extreme political protest that occurred.”

Authorities did not release the protester’s name, age or gender. The person set up outside the building in the city’s midtown neighborhood on Friday afternoon and used gasoline as an accelerant, Atlanta Fire Chief Roderick Smith said.

The protester was in critical condition, with burn injuries to the body. A security guard that tried to stop the person was burned on his wrist and leg, Smith said.

Schierbaum said police are aware of heightened tensions in the Jewish and Muslim community and have stepped up patrols at certain locations, including the consulate.


Emergency personnel work the scene after a protester set themself on fire outside the Israeli consulate in Atlanta, Friday, Dec. 1, 2023.

 (Jason Getz/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)

Demonstrations have been widespread and tensions in the U.S. have escalated as the death toll rises in the Israel-Hamas war.

The conflict began after the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas and other militants, who killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in southern Israel and took around 240 people captive. More than 15,200 people have been killed by Israel’s assault on Hamas-controlled Gaza, according to the Health Ministry there.

A weeklong cease-fire that brought the exchanges of dozens of hostages held by Hamas for scores of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel gave way Friday morning to resumed fighting between Israel and Hamas.

MORE INFO

 

Canadian mining company starts arbitration in case of closed copper mine in Panama

 December 1, 2023

PANAMA CITY (AP) — Canada’s First Quantum Minerals Ltd. announced Friday it has requested arbitration proceedings to fight a Panamanian decision to halt a major open-pit copper mine concession in Panama or obtain damages.

First Quantum said one arbitration was requested under the Canada-Panama Free Trade Agreement. It has also started proceedings before the International Court of Arbitration, which would meet in Miami, Florida, the company said in a statement.

In a historic ruling on Tuesday, Panama’s Supreme Court declared that legislation granting the mine a 20-year concession was unconstitutional. That decision was celebrated by thousands of Panamanians activists who had argued the project would damage a forested coastal area and threaten water supplies.

First Quantum said it requested arbitration from the international panel on Wednesday and that it had initiated proceedings under the free trade agreement even before the court ruling. It did not say what remedy or damages it was seeking, but did say it was open to talks.

First Quantum’s subsidiary, Cobre Panama, “reiterates that transparency and compliance with the law has always been fundamental for the development of its operations and remains open to constructive dialogue in order to reach consensus,” the company said.

The mine, which would be closed by the court ruling, has been an important economic engine for the country since the mine began large-scale production in 2019.

But moves this year to grant the company the 20-year concession triggered massive protests that paralyzed the Central American nation for over a month, mobilizing a broad swath of society, including Indigenous communities, who said the mine was destroying key ecosystems.

The company has said the mine generates 40,000 jobs, including 7,000 direct jobs, and that it contributes the equivalent of 5% of Panama’s GDP.

The firm said it would take time to properly close the mine.

“The Court’s decision does not take into account a planned and managed closure scenario, in which key environmental measures are required to be implemented to maintain the environmental safety of the site during this process,” including water treatment and the storage of mine tailings.

Panama two weeks ago received an initial payment of $567 million from First Quantum under the new contract that was finalized in October. Due to the legal dispute, the amount went directly to a restricted account.

The contract also stipulated that Panama would receive at least $375 million annually from the mining company, an amount that critics considered meager.

Cobre Panama published a scathing statement on Wednesday saying the Supreme Court decision will likely have a negative economic impact and warned that lack of maintenance of drainage systems in the mines could have “catastrophic consequences.”

The move also “puts at risk” all of Panama’s other business contracts, the company said.

VICTOR JARA

US expels an ex-Chilean army officer accused of a folk singer’s torture and murder

BY JOSHUA GOODMAN
 December 1, 2023

MIAMI (AP) — The U.S. has expelled a former Chilean Army officer accused of torturing and killing folk singer Victor Jara during the country’s bloody 1973 coup.

Pedro Barrientos had emigrated to Florida in 1990, the same year the bloody dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet came to an end.

This year, he was stripped of his U.S. citizenship after it was found he concealed information about his Chilean military service during his immigration proceedings.

Jara, a popular singer and university professor, was a fervent supporter of socialist President Salvador Allende. He was seized and taken to a Santiago stadium where thousands of prisoners were held only hours after Pinochet assaulted the presidential palace and overthrew Allende on Sept. 11, 1973. There, he was beaten and he was shot with at least 44 bullets — one of the first of more than 3,000 Chileans killed for opposing Pinochet’s iron-fisted rule.

Barrientos has always denied any involvement in Jara’s murder

But in 2016, a federal jury in Florida found him liable for the torture and killing of Jara in a civil lawsuit brought by Jara’s widow, the British dancer Joan Turner Jara.

Homeland Security Investigations said that Barrientos was removed Thursday on a flight from Miami and taken into custody by Chilean law enforcement officials upon his arrival in the South American country.

Italy reportedly refused Munich museum’s request to return ancient Roman statue bought by Hitler

BUT VE HAVE A RECIEPT

December 2, 2023

MILAN (AP) — Italy’s culture minister is reportedly refusing a request by the German State Antiquities Collection in Munich to return an ancient Roman statue that embodied Hitler’s Aryan aesthetic, calling it a national treasure.

The Discobolus Palombara is a 2nd Century Roman copy of a long-lost Greek bronze original. Hitler had bought the Roman copy from its private Italian owner in 1938 under pressure from Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and against the wishes of the education minister and cultural officials. The statue, unearthed at a Roman villa in 1781, was returned to Italy in 1948 as part of works illegally obtained by the Nazis.

The dispute arose when the director of the National Roman Museum requested the statue’s 17th Century marble base be returned from the Antikensammlungen state antiquities collection. The German museum instead asked for the return of the Discobolus Palombara, saying it had been illegally transported to Italy in 1948, the Corriere della Sera newspaper reported Friday.

Italy’s culture minister, Gennaro Sangiuliano, expressed doubts that the German culture minister, Claudia Roth, was aware of the Bavarian request.

“Over my dead body. The work absolutely must remain in Italy because it is a national treasure,’’ Sangiuliano was quoted by Corriere as saying, adding that he hoped that the base would be returned.

The culture ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Burkina Faso rights defender abducted as concerns grow over alleged clampdown on dissent


 Daouda Diallo, one of Burkina Faso’s most prominent human rights defenders poses for a photograph, in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, Thursday Feb. 3, 2022. Daouda Diallo — who won the Martin Ennals awards for human rights in 2022 — was taken to an unknown location by men who accosted him in the nation’s capital city on Friday, Dec. 1, 2023 the local civic group which Diallo founded said in a statement.

 (AP Photo/Sophie Garcia, File)

BY CHINEDU ASADU
December 2, 2023


ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — A prominent human rights defender in Burkina Faso has been abducted by unknown individuals, rights groups have announced, in what activists say could be the latest attempt by the military government to target dissidents using a controversial law.

Daouda Diallo, a 2022 recipient of the Martin Ennals international human rights award, was abducted on Friday in Burkina Faso’s capital of Ouagadougou after visiting the passport department where he had gone to renew his documents, according to the local Collective Against Impunity and Stigmatization of Communities civic group, which Diallo founded.

His captors – in civilian clothing – accosted him as he tried to enter his car and took him to “an unknown location,” the group said in a statement on Friday, warning that Diallo’s health could be at risk and demanding his “immediate and unconditional” release.

Amnesty International’s West and Central Africa office said Diallo’s abduction was “presumably (for him) to be forcibly conscripted” after he was listed last month among those ordered to join Burkina Faso’s security forces in their fight against jihadi violence as provided by a new law.

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“Amnesty International denounces the use of conscription to intimidate independent voices in #BurkinaFaso and calls for the release of Dr. Diallo,” the group said via X, formerly known as Twitter.


Earlier this year, Burkina Faso’s junta announced the “general mobilization” decree to recapture territories lost as jihadi attacks continue to ravage the landlocked country.

The decree empowers the government to send people to join the fight against the armed groups. But it is also being used to “target individuals who have openly criticized the junta” and “to silence peaceful dissent and punish its critics,” Human Rights Watch has said.

HRW said at least a dozen journalists, civil society activists and opposition party members were informed by the government in November that they would be conscripted, including Diallo, who joined Burkina Faso activists in condemning the move.

“The simple fact of showing an independence of position is enough to be conscripted,” said Ousmane Diallo, a researcher with Amnesty International in Burkina Faso.

“Right now, civil society activists, human rights defenders and even leaders of opposition political parties do not dare express freely their opinions because this decree is being used to silence and intimidate all of the voices that are independent,” he added.

Daouda Diallo won the prestigious Martin Ennals awards for his work in documenting abuses and protecting people’s rights in Burkina Faso where security forces have been fighting jihadi violence for many years.

A pharmacist turned activist, he told The Associated Press last year that he’s regularly followed, his home has been robbed and he rarely sleeps in the same place for fear of being killed.

—-

Associated Press writer Sam Mednick in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

Zambia landslides bury miners digging tunnels illegally, killing 7 and leaving more than 20 missing

Mine workers are seen during a rescue mission in Chingola, around 400 kilometres (248 miles) north of the capital Lusaka, Zambia, Saturday, Dec. 2, 2023. Seven miners were confirmed dead and more than 20 others were missing and presumed dead after heavy rains caused landslides that buried them inside tunnels they had been digging illegally at a copper mine in Zambia, police and local authorities said Saturday. (AP Photo)Read More

Mine workers are seen during a rescue mission in Chingola, around 400 kilometres (248 miles) north of the capital Lusaka, Zambia, Saturday, Dec. 2, 2023. Seven miners were confirmed dead and more than 20 others were missing and presumed dead after heavy rains caused landslides that buried them inside tunnels they had been digging illegally at a copper mine in Zambia, police and local authorities said Saturday. (AP Photo)

Machinery and people are seen during a mine rescue mission in Chingola, around 400 kilometres (248 miles) north of the capital Lusaka, Zambia, Saturday, Dec. 2, 2023. Seven miners were confirmed dead and more than 20 others were missing and presumed dead after heavy rains caused landslides that buried them inside tunnels they had been digging illegally at a copper mine in Zambia, police and local authorities said Saturday. (AP Photo)

Mine workers are seen during a rescue mission in Chingola, around 400 kilometres (248 miles) north of the capital Lusaka, Zambia, Saturday, Dec. 2, 2023. Seven miners were confirmed dead and more than 20 others were missing and presumed dead after heavy rains caused landslides that buried them inside tunnels they had been digging illegally at a copper mine in Zambia, police and local authorities said Saturday. (AP Photo)

Mine workers are seen during a rescue mission in Chingola, around 400 kilometres (248 miles) north of the capital Lusaka, Zambia, Saturday, Dec. 2, 2023. Seven miners were confirmed dead and more than 20 others were missing and presumed dead after heavy rains caused landslides that buried them inside tunnels they had been digging illegally at a copper mine in Zambia, police and local authorities said Saturday. (AP Photo)

BY TSVANGIRAYI MUKWAZHI AND NOEL SICHALWE
 December 2, 2023

LUSAKA, Zambia (AP) — Seven miners were confirmed dead and more than 20 others were missing and presumed dead after heavy rains caused landslides that buried them inside tunnels they had been digging illegally at a copper mine in Zambia, police and local authorities said Saturday.

No bodies had yet been retrieved after the landslides late on Thursday night, police said. Many of the victims were believed to have drowned.

The miners were digging for copper ore at the Seseli open-pit mine in the copper-belt city of Chingola, around 400 kilometers (250 miles) north of the capital, Lusaka, according to police. The landslides happened some time between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. on Thursday, police said.

Police gave names or partial names of seven confirmed victims and said all of the miners in the tunnels are “suspected to have died.”

Neither police nor government officials could say exactly how many miners were trapped in the tunnels, but Chingola District Commissioner Raphael Chumupi told The Associated Press that there were at least 36.

“We are saddened to hear about the tragic accident at a makeshift mine site in Chingola that has claimed many lives,” Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema said in a post on his official Facebook page. “Our prayers are with the families and loved ones of those who died in the accident. We express gratitude to the rescuers and volunteers working tirelessly to reach those still trapped.”

The victims were buried at multiple sites, police said. Police, a mine rescue team and emergency services were at the mine.

“The bodies are not yet retrieved, as efforts are being made to retrieve them,” police spokesperson Rae Hamoonga said.

Chumupi said the miners were engaged in illegal mining without the knowledge of the mine owners. He said they were buried in three separate tunnels.

Illegal artisanal mining is common in Chingola, where the open pits are surrounded by huge waste dumps made up of rock and earth that has been dug out of the mines.

Zambia, a southern African nation of 20 million people, is among the 10 biggest copper producers in the world.
___

Mukwazhi reported from Harare, Zimbabwe.

Bolivia’s Indigenous women climbers fear for their future as the Andean glaciers melt

Bolivia’s Indigenous ‘cholitas’ make a living guiding clients on high altitude glaciers. But now climate change is accelerating the disappearance of these glaciers and the women risk losing their livelihood.

 (Nov. 31) (AP Video/Carlos Guerrero).Photos

BY PAOLA FLORES
 December 1, 2023

EL ALTO, Bolivia (AP) — When they first started climbing the Andes peaks, they could hear the ice crunching under their crampons. These days, it’s the sound of melted water running beneath their feet that they mostly listen to as they make their ascents.

Dressed in colorful, multilayered skirts, a group of 20 Indigenous Bolivian women — known as the Cholita climbers — have been climbing the mountain range for the past eight years, working as tourist guides. But as the glaciers in the South American country retreat as a result of climate change, they worry about the future of their jobs.

The Aymara women remember a time when practically every spot on the glaciers was covered in snow, but now there are parts with nothing but rocks.

“There used to be a white blanket and now there is only rock,” said Lidia Huayllas, one of the climbers. “The thaw is very noticeable.”

Huayllas said she has seen the snow-capped Huayna Potosí mountain, a 6,000-meter (19,600-feet) peak near the Bolivian city of El Alto, shrink little by little in the past two decades.

“We used to walk normally; now, there are rocks and water overflowing,” said the 57-year-old woman as she jumped from stone to stone to avoid getting her skirt and feet wet.

Edson Ramírez, a glaciologist from the Pierre and Marie Curie University in France, estimates that in the last 30 years, Bolivian glaciers have lost 40% of their thickness due to climate change. In the lower parts of the mountain, he says, the ice has basically vanished.

“We already lost Chacaltaya,” said Ramírez, referring to a 5,400-meter (17,700-feet) mountain that used to be a popular ski resort and now has no ice left.

With no ice left in the lower parts of the mountain range, the Cholita climbers need to go further up to find it. This has reduced the number of tourists seeking their services as guides.

Huayllas would not say how much she makes as a tour guide, but she said a Cholita climber currently makes about $30 per tour. That is less than the $50 per tour they used to make.

In 2022, during the September-December climbing season, the Cholitas did 30 tours, Huayllas said. This year, through early November, they had barely done 16.

The situation has gotten so critical, the 20 women have looked for other jobs to make ends meet. Some of the Cholitas have started making and selling blankets and coats with alpaca wool from the Andes, Huayllas said.

“If this continues, we’re going to have to work in commerce or do something else for a living,” said Huayllas, although she quickly dismissed her own pessimistic thought, somehow hoping for a change: “No. This is our source of work.”
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